Want Food-Truck Food in Boston - Here's the skinny!

Then go to this link and you'll find the schedules and more information on the food trucks in our fair city. Nothing like food off a truck, I always say.

You can search by the truck, the day, the time and location.

Enjoy!

Food Ruts

We've all done it. Gotten into a food habit where all we want to eat falls into the same category of snacks or meals. You know you've done it. Ordered Creme Brûlée at EVERY meal for a a month or had the same exact beer with dinner no matter where you go.

Well, I'm not immune either and am likely one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to mood foods and their longevity. Mine might even go beyond the usual because my inclination is to find a perfect meal and keep replicating it.

Take, for instance, my ongoing obsession with sushi. I don't eat it at every meal anymore, but I do tend to find a way to enjoy raw fish on a regular basis.

I'm not sure what causes this phenomena, but it's got to have some basis in our comfort ties to meals. *I've also gone through my steak, burger, burrito, BBQ and noodle phases - so it can change.

What is on your mood-food menu these days? Feel free to link back to your blog and your photos of those meals.

A Newish Twist

As you've seen from the last collection of posts, I'm covering food a lot more here now. That - I think - is going to be the full-time focus of this blog as I've established TheGadgetReporter.com as a site where you can find out about technology, social media, Web, consumer products and more.

It also gives me a little more freedom to talk about food travel and experiences to an audience that is rabid for that stuff.

Over the next couple weeks and months I'll be morphing the design of this site and the titles so it becomes Jeff Cutler's Food Lab or something similar. If you have ideas for layout, what you want to see more of, or places and foods you want me to try, just give a shout.

Thanks!

606 Congress - Blue Ribbon NYC - A Tasting Event

The other night I had the pleasure of attending a tasting event at 606 Congress in Boston. The restaurant, with chef Rich Garcia at the helm, is nicely appointed and was the perfect place to share a few new menu items. But these items were actually developed by Blue Ribbon, a foodservice group out of New York City, and then introduced to Rich and 606. Then we got to taste them.

Here's how it went...

After arriving and being feted with drinks - even some of those were created just for the restaurant - we got into the tasting. Here are some food shots and descriptions...

The Tasting Menu, Including Drinks

The Michelada. They make it with Harpoon UFO, Lime Juice and Hot Sauce. Tastes like a beer bloody mary.

Jeff Cutler and Rich Garcia

The mingling prior to the Tasting Event

Our Tasting Table at 606 Congress

Our place settings at 606 Congress. They took some care to create a nice presentation.

Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Cookbook. Some great recipes inside. We received a copy as a parting gift.

The funky design placemats at 606 Congress

Menu and Logo from Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Restaurants. Find them on Twitter - @BlueRibbonNYC

Manchego and Mexican Honey Toast. Light and divine. Still warm when it arrived. B+.

Another shot of the Honey Toast. The honey comes from Mexico and honey farms that Blue Ribbon operates.

Spicy Egg Shooters. Pickled peppers and olive oil mayo. These had a little kick, but were perfectly balanced. A-

Another shot of the Egg Shooter

Who thought Hummus could be fancied up? White Bean Hummus Toast. Best dish of the night. A

Another photo of the toast. Olives mixed in were perfectly salty for balance.

Fried Rock Shrimp. These popped when you bit them. Perhaps one of the best preparations of shrimp I've experienced lately. Just so well cooked that I was pleased. Taste was very good. B+

The Rock Shrimp platter

When I take food shots, I look for the best visual of the night. These win for that. While the Smoked Salmon Toast wasn't over-the-top as a winning dish, the fragrance was superb and the color was amazing. B

Another shot of the Salmon

Some of the honey. This was delivered so we could drizzle it on the "Northern Fried" Chicken Wings.

The Wings - a Blue Ribbon specialty. Taste was very good and the best feature was probably the breading/skin. It didn't fall off by itself but clung nicely to the chicken so you had a very balanced bite each time you sampled the wing. B

Wing on my plate

Honey drizzled wing on my plate

Rich Garcia explaining the dishes and the 606 Congress atmosphere and philosophy.

They have some wine.

In all, I had a great time and am looking forward to trying some of the other Blue Ribbon venues. They have a top-end sushi restaurant in New York City that I'd love to visit.

Have you been to 606? What did you think?

Novell Vibe Outreach Event - Boston

As many of you know, I create content for a living.

More simply put, I write stuff and people pay me to do so. I’m also a social media trainer, guest speaker and event organizer. To that end, I keep an event calendar over at WithJeff.com and schedule dozens of speaking gigs and training sessions each year all over the United States.

In my role as content creator and event organizer, I’ve put together numerous Tweetups. These have included events for Nissan, Society of Professional Journalists, Egg-Nog Fanatics, the audience of NomX3 and even Ford Motor Company. But recently, I jumped up a level and was honored to be able to merge a few of my skills at an event for Novell - it was what I like to call a Focus Group Tweetup.

The invitation-only event (tweaking the literal definition of a Tweetup with its exclusive nature) brought together 16 technology, community, social and business professionals to talk about a software product. I planned the event at the amazing Brasserie Jo in Boston - and I will tell anyone who will listen that it’s as close as you can get to dining in Paris without flying 3000 miles.

So, right off the bat I had upped the ante. Here are some photos from the night, some facts about the discussion, a link to the product if you want to try it out, and my evaluation of how things went. If you’ve ever wanted to organize a Tweetup, anyone can do it. You just need some organizational skills and the energy to pull it off.

I expect to be doing similar events in Salt Lake City and Austin, TX over the next month or so, and will be doing a few Ice Cream Tweetups over the summer in Boston. Just follow me on twitter if you’d like to be sure not to miss those Tweetups.

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Novell Vibe Cloud Outreach Tweetup - Boston, MA - April 25, 2010

The food was amazing - a Prix Fixe menu prepared with four courses and select beverages from Brasserie Jo.

The guest speaker for the evening was the talented Doug Haslam. He talked about community and collaboration - two of the facets that the Novell team is trying to foster with their Vibe Cloud product.

The Novell team was on hand to discuss how to use Vibe Cloud and to answer questions from various social media luminaries. Essentially, Vibe Cloud is real-time social collaboration made enterprise-secure.

Here are some shots of the evening...

The list of attendees included...

Doug Haslam

http://twitter.com/dough

http://doughaslam.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/doughaslam

David Karp

http://twitter.com/limeduck

http://www.limeduck.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dkarp

Steve Garfield

http://twitter.com/stevegarfield

http://stevegarfield.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegarfield

Meg Fowler

http://twitter.com/megfowler

http://megfowler.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/megfowler

Bobbie Carlton

http://twitter.com/bobbiec

http://www.carltonprmarketing.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbiecarlton

Ellen Rossano

http://twitter.com/ellenrossano

http://ellenrossano.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenrossano

Shwen Gwee

http://twitter.com/shwen

http://www.med20.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/shwen

Todd Van Hoosear

http://twitter.com/#!/vanhoosear

http://itsfreshground.com/about/todd-van-hoosear/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/vanhoosear

Christine Major

http://twitter.com/cmajor

http://www.christinemajor.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemajor

Stephen Dill

http://twitter.com/srdill

http://stephendill.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/srdill

Cappy Popp

http://twitter.com/cappypopp

http://www.thoughtlabs.com/about-thought-labs/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cappy

In all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the event met or exceeded the goals we set at the beginning.

Have you ever attended an exclusive Tweetup? What are you thoughts about how businesses might start using this meeting model going forward?